Anamorphosis
by Kaguya Kirsizan
Summary: Ephidel wakes up to find that he has survived the closing of the Dragon's Gate. A fight makes him realize he's more human than he ever thought. Perhaps a morph actually CAN be human.


Thanks for reading my fic. This fic takes place in the Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken (Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword) universe. It takes place after Chapter 19, immediately following when Ninian closes the portal to the dragon world. When the portal closed, Ephidel and the Dragon "died". This is the story of the mysterious Ephidel.

I do not own Fire Emblem. All characters, names, and terms and stuff belong to Intelligent Systems, and Nintendo too. The only thing I own is the plot to this fanfic. Please do not distribute my story without my permission and without it being properly credited.

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**Chapter 1**

Ephidel's golden eyes opened, and he immediately felt pain everywhere on his body. He coughed softly, tasting copper, as blood pooled in his mouth. With a grimace, he spat out the blood as he came to a shaky stand.

"Where the hell am I?" Ephidel asked himself, his question echoing off the walls. The room was huge, and only a few torches were lit, making it impossible to know its actual size.

_What happened to me?_ Ephidel thought. _The last thing I remember…  
_  
"Marquess Santaruz's betrayal and death." Ephidel said to himself. "Laus's invasion… Caelin's invasion… Dread Isle's invasion…. And then the…"

A piercing roar echoed through the room, and Ephidel turned slowly to confirm his suspicions.

"Dragon…" Ephidel whispered. The blood-red dragon snarled at the morph, poised to attack. Ephidel felt a strange sensation, and he felt himself tremble slightly. For the first time ever, he felt afraid. Morphs were void of all emotion, but Ephidel felt them now.

_This is not good. Even if the dragon is mortally wounded, I have no chance against it. There is no way I can beat something with that amount of power!_ Ephidel thought grimly. _But I have to fight it, there's nowhere to run!  
_  
The dragon reared back, and unleashed its fire. Ephidel barely had enough time to jump behind a pillar, one that would protect him from the flames, even for a short while. The flames continued, and Ephidel's hands itched for his Anima tome. When at the Dragon's Gate, he had been ready to fight anyone and anything. When the Gate collapsed with him inside of its range, he still had his tome. But where was it now? The flames receded, and Ephidel chanced a look out into the gigantic room to scan for his tome.

"There it is." Ephidel whispered, eyeing the golden Anima magic tome. Within its pages were powerful spells that could save his life. _I know basic spells by heart, but that won't do a whole lot to the dragon._ Ephidel thought bitterly. _But it might distract him._

The dragon caught a sight of Ephidel and spewed another spray of flames at the Sage. Ephidel turned and hide behind his pillar again, which was starting to heat up. _Thunder beats dragons and wyverns._ Ephidel thought to himself, as he muttered the basic Thunder spell under his breath. His lips moved breathlessly and quickly as he felt the magical energy in his body surge forth and gather at his palms. The flames receded once again, and Ephidel took another chance and emerged from his hiding place.

"THUNDER!" Ephidel shouted, outstretching his palm to the dragon. The bolt of electricity struck the dragon in the shoulder, knocking it back slightly and momentarily paralyzed its front leg. It let out a hiss as it began to collapse slightly at the lack of strength in its arm. Ephidel didn't need a second thought as he raced toward the Anima tome, his magic increasing his speed slightly. He grabbed the large book and sprinted toward another pillar. A low hiss escaped the dragon's throat, and Ephidel turned his head quickly and saw the dragon turning its body towards him. He rose on its hind legs and gave an ear splitting roar.

The dragon fell back on all fours; Ephidel took the opportunity to flip through the pages of his anima tome to find a fire blocking spell. He found it near the back of the book, and began to recite the incantation. The dragon rose on its hind legs, towering over Ephidel once more before it opened up its leathery wings and flapped them once. Ephidel fought against the wind, but was slowly pushed backwards. The dragon roared, shooting a stream of flames at Ephidel.

"FLAME BARRIER!" Ephidel shouted, moments before the fire would have hit him. The barrier went up in front of Ephidel, deflecting the blaze. Though the flames couldn't reach the sage, Ephidel could feel their heat.

_So close…_ Ephidel though, fear rising inside him. _I could have died…_

The dragon reared back to take another breath, and Ephidel took the opportunity to quickly mutter out the incantation to Elthunder, a mid level Thunder technique that he had been studying.

"ELTHUNDER!" Ephidel yelled. A large thunderbolt clapped, striking the dragon on the head. It roared with pain, and shook its head, wildly spurting flames everywhere. Ephidel dodged the best he could, but didn't quite manage to get clear of a stray flame spire. They quickly burnt through his robes, and he hissed in pain. He put out the flames, but the bodily damage was already done. His robes had burnt completely through, and his side was blackened and burnt. He held his side with his good arm, and awkwardly held his tome in his left arm.

_Elthunder did some work on the dragon, but at the rate I'm going I won't be able to take it out…_ Ephidel thought to himself, fighting against the searing pain. _There's only one thing left to do… It might work… but that will drain the last of my magic.  
_  
As Ephidel stared down the dragon with grim determination, he carefully flipped to the next page is his ragged tome.

_If this doesn't work… _He thought desperately, clenching his teeth and reading the tome_,…I'm dead._

The dragon finally came to its sense and began to inhale, charging its next breath attack. Ephidel didn't hesitate. He read out the incantation as quickly as he could, outstretched his palm, and as the dragon opened its mouth to attack…

"ARCTHUNDER!!"

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Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. If you have time, please post a review, and help make this fic better, or to just let me know how much you like (or don't like) it! Any and all criticism is needed and accepted! Thanks, and I hope you continue to read this as it progresses!


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